Seldon do i post outside zoology, but this is a good guestion. God is dog backwards, live is evil backwards. If biology is the study of life than the main question is life. Life was formed from bubbling chemicals with a mixture of lightning ( as is the modern proposal). Purpose is what you make out of it. The question of life is... can you put a value on it. For example does a amobea of less "life value" than a human? And how does bio's opposite death respond?

What the use of superior genes if they aren't passed down. Life's value may have something to do with contiuning life. Think about it. evolution is survivor of the ones who reproduce. Just something to chew on...

Inuyasha wrote:What the use of superior genes if they aren't passed down. Life's value may have something to do with contiuning life. Think about it. evolution is survivor of the ones who reproduce. Just something to chew on...

You're halfway there...but there is one thing you should adjust. Continuing life, passing down one's genes is not a value of life...it is the purpose of life. In biology, the only purposes of life are to gain enough energy to pass the genes down to the next generation. I.E. Eat and mate.

I think, Inuyasha wants to ask can we call some organism more alive [ living ] than other one eg. bacts are less alive [ living] than humans etc. Right ?
But, how to measure 'livingness'
This is to be decided here.
I think it would be decided in a way similar to the one we use to classify the organisms is a phylogenetic system. Here, we have to draw cumulative conclusion based on fulfilment of followin criteria-
1. degree of biological complexity
2. degree of presence of feelings
3. How much sensitive it is , towards the external stimuli . -no. of senses - etc.

Life is so hard to define, so defining the value of it is is more hard. That's why its a good question. 2810712 makes a good point. That is where my focus was towards. HOwever you can expand onit if you want

Here is the current definition of life. In order for something to be called living, it must follow all of these:

1. all known living things are made up of cells.
2. the cell is structural & functional unit of all living things.
3. all cells come from pre-existing cells by division.
(Spontaneous Generation does not occur).
4. cells contains hereditary information which is passed from
cell to cell during cell division.
5. All cells are basically the same in chemical composition.
6. all energy flow (metabolism & biochemistry) of life occurs
within cells.

Disclaimer: This is not my own work...it is the work of the biological community. If you do not agree with it, go to the PhD's and all other scientists, don't bash me,

Ya, you are right. but these chara. are common to all linings so it can't help us decide the degree of there livingness. In the ancient scripture i'm quite aware of, I remember that, they have mentioned many levels life , they have told that they have some energy inside them the energy corresponds to oja and teja. but surprisingly they tell that non-livings also have teja and oja. They also tell that if you improve the energies of non-livings eg. by giving them some cosmic-ray energy to them-or REKI they improve performance, So the energy content of bodies determine the degree of livingness.
So, nonlivings are at zero level. but how to get the levels of other living things ? ? ? Also, according to REKI theory, for a body requirement of REKI changes time to time, so can we conclude that we also undergo slight changes of life levels???- probably yes, what do u think???
Don't hesitate to ask queries.